Move Rounds or Split There? Take the Poll.

Lotta time my scores are multiple days at the same location which isn’t on my property. No way I want to drag the splitter around and or leave it onsite. All my splitting is done at home. If I had my own woods, probably a different strategy.

 

Move as rounds for sure, or more correctly logs. 8' long load & haul. Process here as time allows. I always want inventory on hand for a few hours here & there of processing. Skidding & hauling is an all day event usually.

 

Bring the rounds home. Split whenever.

 

If the wood that is next door to your storage is an easy roll, like smooth and downhill and the rounds are big I’d consider rolling them while the ground is frozen.

 

I try to take the splitter to the rounds. If take the rounds to the splitter and have a stack it bugs me till I get them split. I lit to get it done. But in my case I'm lucky, Where I cut would I have a tractor so I can skid the log to the splitter cut it up and stack it all in the same spot. When the back gets tired of doing one thing I can move to something else where I am in a different position. It does seem to help.

 

Move out as rounds.
Noodle or hand split them if they are too big to move.

Most scores so far find me parked on a road, or hustling to get a tree off someones yard. Only once did I split to stove size when I thought the owner might want the wood herself. I have one score now where I will split on site to drop at my storage site for stacking later.

Sca

 

All depends on situation before i had a log splitter i would never bring back rounds because they are n eye sore to my wife so i would split everything with the fiskars maul load up the van bring home n stack it…now tho i got the splitter so i try to jus fill up as much rounds…giant oak or cherry. rounds that are 24 nches in diamter im poppin in half with the fiskars before loading

 

I like to get it home and split later. If the rounds are too heavy to pick up I just roll them up my ramp into the bed.

 

I have hauled the splitter out to cut split then haul back to the house but not often. I find it more convenient to cut my 16” rounds load the trailer then out the trail to the house. Then I put the splitter at the stack so it goes from trailer to splitter to stack then BEER.

 

For those of you that split rounds, oak in particular (or equally hardwood), is there a technique to do more than dent a round? So far I've used just a maul and try to pick a crack to pound on. I also tried a wedge without good results, just got the wedge stuck..

 

Attacking any existing cracks definitely helps. Also working a line back and forth a little at a time. When I was a strict hand splitter, I found working from the outside in rather than the center out was most efficient. Once you get even a smaller chunk split off, it becomes a lot easier.

 

I haven't tried working the edge, I'll have to give that a go. I pass up a lot of big stuff, because it's...big

 

Oak is easy to hand split for the most part, unless knotty of course. Orient the round so the round is in the dame direction when it was a tree if it has knots. I look for the biggest check (crack) and hit that. Fresh cut rounds will split a LOT easier than ones that sit and weather. If they must sit for a few weeks ill have one end contact the ground to keep it wet. The wet end splits a lot easier than the dry.
The way Eric did it works well when and if i remember to do it that way.

 

I hear you, it's a lot of brutal work to split the big stuff manually. Here's a picture of a large red oak that came down in my backyard August 2020. After the storm passed, I went and ordered a splitter but ended up splitting probably a dozen rounds by hand until it came in. It sucked but it can be done, and this is the right time of year to do it, rather than in the summer.

 

I have noodled a little, and then used that as a place to start the maul.
Also agree with slabbing pieces off the outside edges.
Sca

 

Have you tried noodling? Using the chain saw rather than a maul to section big rounds?

 

Can you position a stack of splits, so that rounds can be dropped (and split) behind the stack? That would hide the splitting yard & piles, abate noise, grant a little privacy...

Sca

 

That's all good info to keep in mind. I can't let anything sit, it's public property and if it sits unattended it's up for grabs by anyone else that's looking for firewood. And of course once it's home, then the hydraulic splitter is there.

 

I have not. I guess that's another technique to try, and as Sirchopsalot suggests, noodle a groove, then try splitting off that. If that fails then noodle away. I've been hesitant to do that just because of the wear on the chain, maybe I need to get away from that mindset.